2.5.2 Aubrey Sheiham Public Health and Primary Care Scholarship

Aubrey Sheiham, BDS, PhD, DHC

Aubrey Sheiham is a dental epidemiologist who was inspired and encouraged by Archie Cochrane to question many of the practices in medicine and dentistry. His main commitment is to improving the health of populations in underdeveloped countries and challenging dental establishments to be far more critical. The misuse of healthcare resources has more serious ethical and health implications in underdeveloped countries because resources there for health are generally inadequate. Aubrey considers that supporting and training key health personnel in the concepts of The Cochrane Collaboration will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of primary health care. Aubrey and his wife Helena have been exceptionally generous not only through their financial support of the Aubrey Sheiham Scholarship, but also for making their apartment in Oxford, England, available for the use both of the Scholars and other members of The Cochrane Collaboration visiting Oxford to do Cochrane work (for a minimum of one week, and a maximum of two weeks, except in exceptional circumstances).

The Aubrey Sheiham Public Health and Primary Care Scholarship

General information and requirements of the scholarship

The Aubrey Sheiham Public Health and Primary Care Scholarship is a three-month scholarship offered annually by The Cochrane Collaboration to health workers, consumers and researchers living in developing countries. The aim of the Scholarship is to enable the development of skills in preparing systematic reviews of healthcare interventions within The Cochrane Collaboration. The Scholarship is awarded annually for work on a topic related to public health or primary health care.

The Aubrey Sheiham Scholar spends the three-month Scholarship period in Oxford. The Scholar is based at the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford for the duration of the Scholarship, and resides in free accommodation provided by The Cochrane Collaboration. The Scholar is expected to prepare a Cochrane Review during the tenure of the Scholarship and, upon returning home, to maintain the review and undertake to train other prospective review authors in Cochrane methods.

Preferred recipients will have:

• a good understanding of the English language;
• limited access to relevant training where they live; and
• a review topic that is of significant importance to people living in middle- or low-income countries* (*low- or middle-income countries as defined at www.worldbank.org/data/countryclass/classgroups.htm

The Scholarship recipient will be expected to:

• be previously registered as a review author with the Cochrane Review Group relevant to the proposed research area;
• have agreed a review topic with the relevant Cochrane Review Group before submitting an application;
• work primarily from the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford, but also work closely with one or more UK-based members of a Cochrane Review Group;
• prepare a Cochrane review during the tenure of the Scholarship;
• maintain the Cochrane review on returning home; and
• teach others how to do systematic reviews on returning home.

The Scholarship will cover:

• travel costs including the cost of ordinary fare travel to and from the UK, as well as reasonable travel within the UK to work on the review topic; and the cost of a visa;
• funds to cover reasonable travel expenses within the UK to visit a relevant Review Group or Co-ordinator;
• a monthly stipend of GBP £500 to cover living costs (free accommodation will be provided in Oxford).

A condition of the scholarship is that Scholars must arrange their own medical insurance for the duration of their visit. Documentation to support this should be provided prior to arrival in the UK.Applications, in English, should include:

• a full curriculum vitae;
• a description of how the applicant would benefit from the Scholarship;
• a description of how the applicant would use the skills gained on returning home;
• the full names and addresses (e-mail address if possible) of three referees;
• an outline of work already done on systematic reviews or clinical trials, including experience with quantitative data;
• the suggested topic for review, with up to 500 words explaining the relevance to public health and primary care; and
• confirmation from the relevant Cochrane Review Group that the topic has been agreed.
• a signed statement from the applicant’s head of department, agreeing to release the applicant to take up this Schoalrship, should his/her application be successful.

Application and selection process

The UK Cochrane Centre (UKCC) establishes and administers the yearly timetable for advertising for and selecting the Sheiham Scholar. Once this has been decided, the UKCC circulates information on requirements and application deadlines to Cochrane entities and e-mail lists, and an announcement is posted on the ‘Cochrane Opportunities’ page of The Cochrane Collaboration’s website. Applications are reviewed by the selection panel, whose members are drawn mainly from developing countries.

Timetable for applications

Early September: Call for applications.

NOTE: Applicants MUST have already agreed a review topic with the relevant Cochrane Review Group before submitting their application.

31 October: Deadline for applications.

Early December: Announcement of the following year’s Scholarship recipient.